Lucy Fisher

And the Tribune soft left group, you know, is talking about easing the fiscal rules, scrapping stamp duty issues.

changing the function of the Treasury.

That is all the kind of radical sort of left-leaning proposals that send the market into turmoil.

This is being billed as the speech of Starmer's career after the absolutely dismal results for the ruling Labour Party in the local elections.

This is being billed as the speech of Starmer's career after the absolutely dismal results for the ruling Labour Party in the local elections.

We've got swirling speculation in Westminster about whether a challenger might launch a coup attempt against him.

And therefore Downing Street know that they have to try and reset Starmer's administration and give faith to his MPs and ministers that he can turn the government around and restore the public's faith in his own leadership.

So we are expecting him to talk a lot about Europe and make a big play on closer relations with the EU.

It's obviously 10 years this summer.

since the Brexit referendum.

And I think that will be the main play from this speech.

Whether it's enough, it remains to be seen.

I think these elections marked the death knell for the two-party system that has been dominant in England for decades.

I think there's a sense in the UK that living standards have been stagnant for so long, essentially, since the financial crash of 2008, 2009.

So I think there's a sense that after 14 years of Conservative-led rule ended in 2024, there were high hopes that the new Labour regime could really get things done.

That has stalled.

And I think there is a willingness now among the public to roll the dice and try something fresh with one of these third parties that have, you know, shot up in the polls in recent months.

Well, it's a very good question.

And it does, I think, confuse some people why they see the monarch standing in Parliament and reading out the legislative agenda should make clear that Buckingham Palace, the royal family, have nothing to do with actually formulating the package of bills that we're going to see introduced in Parliament.

Rather, it's just part of the tradition that they read out the list of legislation that the government puts together.